There is a Shortage of Health Care Professionals Capable of Serving the Elderly Population

There is a troubling shortage of health care professionals specializing in treating and caring for the elderly, according to an article published in Kaiser Health News. This shortage includes geriatricians, physicians who specialize in the treatment of adults age 65 and older, as well as nurses, physical therapists and psychologists who know how to care for this population.

The American Geriatrics Society estimates that the nation will need approximately 30,000 geriatricians by 2030 to serve the 30 percent of older Americans with the most complicated medical problems, according to an article in Health News from NPR. There are, however, only about 7,000 geriatricians currently practicing. To meet the projected need, the society estimates medical schools would have to train at least 1,500 geriatricians annually between now and 2030, or five times as many as last year.

Dr. Todd Goldberg, a geriatrician, recently told Kara Lofton, of West Virginia Public Broadcasting:

“With the growing elderly population across America and West Virginia, obviously we need healthcare providers...The current workforce is inadequately trained and inadequately prepared to deal with what’s been called the silver tsunami — a tidal wave of elderly people — increasing in the population in West Virginia, across America and across the world really.” 

The deficit of properly trained physicians is only expected to get worse. By 2030, one in five Americans will be eligible for Medicare, the government health insurance for those 65 and older.

Dr. Goldberg teaches at the Charleston division of West Virginia University and runs one of the state’s four geriatric fellowship programs for medical residents. Geriatric fellowships are required for any physician wanting to enter the field.

For the past three years, no physicians have entered the fellowship program at WVU-Charleston. In fact, no students have enrolled in any of the four geriatric fellowship programs in West Virginia in the past three years.

“This is not just our local program, or in West Virginia,” said Goldberg. “This is a national problem.”

The United States has 130 geriatric fellowship programs, with 383 positions. In 2016, only 192 of them were filled.